ACT-UP is envisioned to offer free access to antiviral drugs to help those who get infected AIDS and to raise more public awareness to stop the spread of AIDS. In the 1980s, the ACT-UP committed a series of actions to make the government, media, and pharmaceutical companies solve this issue. Protesting with the poster and other forms of art was the primary way of ACT-UP to spread their messages. ACT-UP chose the ‘sacred space’ like the City Hall and the White House as the place of the protest for a reason. Gay and people who get AIDS were people just like everyone else and this was written in laws and constitution of the United States. However, the people who got AIDS was not equally treated like other patients. Instead, they were under persecution and discrimination by the government and the public. They did not have basic human rights and were facing death because of lacking proper medical treatments. So, it is understandable that ACT-UP would go to the White House the spread the ashes of their loved ones to force the government and the public to respond and take actions. AIDS People were in danger and the Constitutions were supposed to protect them.

The reason why the public actions often so powerful was that it was a just war for the ACT-UP. People were fighting for their rights to survive because they were dying; People were fighting for their dead lovers because they deserved respect; People were fighting for their rights to live like a normal person as a gay. Just like the famous ACT-UP poster with a pink triangle means, if people do not speak up, they would die. Those driving forces produced great power of the people because it was urgent as lives were fading and gay and AIDS people’s feelings were long-depressed. They really wanted to fight for a good life.

As I learned about environmental racism for my topic, I knew about people protesting for government’s discriminating environmental policies and the big companies’ environmental crime. The communities’ environments were polluted and damaged by dangerous chemicals and waste. Even the air and water quality were too bad. People’s lives were in danger and the children’s health was being greatly affected. Just like the AIDS and gay issues of the ACT-UP, people’s lives and their sustainability were urgently needed to change, or they would die. People who opposed environmental racism tried to lay on the high way to stop the truck send the chemical waste to the community. This kind of radical actions was similar to the ACT-UP who opposed the ban of condoms by laying down in the church. It was without doubt that it had raised a lot of public attention, but behind the action was the eagerness for the people to survive.

Z.L